Posted on 03/21/2024 4:59:41 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
Three people sued the National Park Service earlier this month for its policy not to accept cash payments at a growing number of locations.
Esther van der Werf of Ojai, California, Toby Stover of High Falls, New York, and Elizabeth Dasburg of Darien, Georgia, filed their lawsuit on March 6 after being prevented from paying in cash at various national parks, monuments and historic sites around the country. Citing a U.S. code that states U.S. currency is legal tender for all public charges, the lawsuit alleges that the park service’s cashless policy is in violation of federal law.
The park service instituted cashless policies at approximately 29 locations, according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs said cash payments were refused at sites in Arizona, New York and Georgia.
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The Park Service instituted cashless policies at a number of its locations in 2023, including California’s Death Valley National Park. In one news release regarding the cashless policy at Death Valley, the park service said that the $22,000 in cash collected by the park during the previous year took more than $40,000 to process.
“Cash handling costs include an armored car contract to transport cash and park rangers’ time counting money and processing paperwork,” the Park Service wrote in the news release. “The transition to cashless payments will allow the NPS to redirect the $40,000 previously spent processing cash to directly benefit park visitors.”
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I hope they win and the government needs to figure out how to handle efficiently like businesses.
Your cash ain’t nothin’ but trash
Your cash ain’t nothin’ but trash
Your cash ain’t nothin’ but trash
And there ain’t no need in your hangin’ around
Suddenly the government is worried about spending 40K?
“This note is legal tender for all debts public and private.”
Seems pretty clear to me.
L
“park rangers’ time counting money and processing paperwork”
Weren’t they already getting paid to this on the job?
Our parks should be free for US citizens.
i tend to agree, but a ‘purchase’ is not the same thing as a ‘debt’.
“ Weren’t they already getting paid to this on the job?ll
Yes, they are. My instinct is that a bunch of cash was evaporating.
L
Portillo’s takes card payment only. First drive-thru I have come across. Guess it’s the coming thing. More control over our money. Trace CC expenses, and more.
Sending an armored car to remote national park is probably very expensive. Where is the nearest bank?
Reserve for free online. Pay using credit card if it's same day visit. For crowd control.
Exactly. Every big box store can figure out how to handle cash, make them figure it out.
But if you use cash, they have to ask you for a “tip”. When you are forced to pay with a card, a friggin’ machine asks you for a “tip” for them. Even recommends how much to give them. Retarded AI crap. That crap has caused me to stop tipping everyone except waiters and waitresses and I leave cash on the table.
“the park service said that the $22,000 in cash collected by the park during the previous year took more than $40,000 to process. “
Bullshit.
“but a ‘purchase’ is not the same thing as a ‘debt’.”
Yes it is... That is what the government wants us to think but it is absolutely false.
debt: noun
1: something owed : obligation
2: >a state of being under obligation to pay or repay someone or something in return for something received< : a state of owing
^^^^^^^^^^ (Applies to anything and everything purchased once you “agree to purchase”.)
3: law and business : the common-law action for the recovery of money held to be due
4: sin, trespass
Forgive us our debts.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/debt
i think i can at least understand their motivation. a bill reader barrier gate would normally require an uninterruptible grid electrical source, which is difficult to transmit to the death valley remote desert location. armored car pickups in a remote desert location may also be very expensive. all such costs could be weighed in consideration of the collected revenue which is not likely to be large. also, a premium entry charge might be prohibited by uniform entry fee considerations. the cost might be labor in various forms. the costs might exceed the revenue collected. OTOH, there are IIRC no alternative routes through death valley, so people without a credit card would be put in what i would consider to be unanticipated potential peril from being refused entry by a machine.
it’s easy to imagine only the nps side being considered at the remote national level, resulting in an incorrect implementation at the local level.
nps seems at times riddled with deadwood. i recall trying to have a discussion with a glacier national park ranger on global warming (but nope, all i got back was cookie cutter arguments with no awareness of any alternaive view). on a hunch, i asked another park ranger if a republican would be considered for an open park ranger position, with the response being nope.
a great steve miller band tune!
Don’t they have to pay a fee whenever someone uses a card ? That adds up but it’s really about knowing what you do every second of you life
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